In a state of madness, I signed up for LinkedIn last year.
The first thing that they did was to gut my email contact list and extend invitations to everybody on the list, in my name, to join into LinkedIn as well. I know this because I kept getting responses and contacts saying that they had accepted my invitation to join my Circle of Trust, or whatever.
No biggie, it serves the victims right for being associated with me.
So, seeing that it would not serve me, I haven’t kept up with the wonders of LinkedIn. Just lose-lose to be connected with them, so I lost interest almost immediately, and stopped even looking at their site and at my incoming email related to them. But, here is a mystery: I have got a few emails lately saying that " [friend X]" has “endorsed** handsomeharry** for new skills…” OK, I understand that the site goes off on a tangent every now and then, and indiscriminately sends out unsolicited messages. In fact, I am almost certain that this is what it is, in this case. One endorsement came from a woman whom I am almost 100% certain despises me, and the other is from a guy who has no use for me. (handsome, not charmingharry, you see.)
So, I want to know just what the actual purpose of the ‘endorsement’ message is. Is it a new way for LinkedIn to keep me using the site, and they’re just grabbing a few of my Associates’ contact list, and sending these tidings of live in their names? (I’ve only received 2 or 3 endorsements, and, using the company’s MO, I would think I’d receive a larger amount of phony endorsements if the company was up to their usual devilment. But, perhaps marketing whizzes have found their limit in how much professionals will fall for.) And, am I sending out Endorsements for my many friends’ new skills, and do not know it? Or, is it a genuine message, and my Associates been conned into thinking that I am a Resource?
So, in short, is the ‘endorsement’ a company stunt, or have my two contacts finally found some new way in which I could serve their will?
Ran across this a couple weeks ago…someone endorsed me for something, and when I looked at it LI prompted me with 3 or 4 reccommended endorsements. There was some incentive to click on them and ‘endorse’ my contacts, but I chose not to.
Endorsements are just a LinkedIn feature that allow you to say “I know person XYZ and he is good at skill ABC.” The idea is that if a recruiter sees your profile and you have a dozen endorsements for a skill they want, and the endorsements come from reputable people, then he may want to hire you.
In order for this system to actually work, people need to actually make endorsements, so LinkedIn sends out messages inviting you to do so.
It’s ends up being similar to ‘likes’ on facebook. Someone you “have a connection with” whether old college buddies, people you know in a social setting, or gasp actual coworkers, can see your skills and “endorse” them. This is really quite useless if someone you’ve never worked with endorses, say, your still at aspect oriented programming when they are a farmer in real life.
LinkedIn wants to be the ‘professional’ facebook really badly, but it’s really just a gold mine for recruiters and as such, the ‘product’ (ie, you and me) tend not to find it very useful.
And to add to the uselessness of the endorsements, friends of mine who are not familiar at all with my work have endorsed me for skills they only know I have because I’ve listed them on my profile. I’m thinking of adding “Trans-warp engineer” to my skills just to see who endorses me.
The problem is they’ve made it FAR too easy to do-- they even SUGGEST what the person might be an expert at!-- so it’s basically meaningless at this point.
They still have the long-form co-worker reviews, those carry a lot more weight because they take a lot more effort on the part of the reviewer. Not just clicking a button.
As a favor to a friend I signed up at Linked-In and haven’t found it a problem. Acouple e-mail “updatess” a month
related, since someone mentions Facebook, I have recently getting pop-up adverts while surfing about Facxebook “3 people unliked you” or words to that effect. Since I have never been on facebook and have no friends or likes on computer, I wonder why any one would think this an effective campaign?
I am absolutely certain that Facebook doesn’t tell you when someone unfriends (not unlikes… you like a page, you friend a person) you. They don’t want it obvious if your local circle is shrinking or if you have a beef with someone. I would guess you’re getting pop-ups from some other source that has a generic message to try and get you to buy something.
Update:
I found another reason that my good buddies were endorsing me. They need jobs! One friend, who isn’t on the “I despise handsomeharry” list, endorsed me. It seems that he just went down his contact sheet, helter-skelter, and endorsed them all, with the note: “If anybody knows of a job in our industry, let me know.”
So, I guess an endorsement is a not-so-subtle way to let people know that one is unemployed.
No, that can’t be it. I’ve been getting endorsements from some of my former co-workers, and both I and they are employed at the moment. I think they’re just prompted by LinkedIn, and trying to be friendly.
This is really annoying to me. I’m quite sure I never put any skills into LinkedIn, but it keeps telling me that people I know have endorsed me for skills that I don’t even have, but LinkedIn thinks I have.